Heat stored in the Earth system 1960–2020: Where does the energy go?
Type | Article | ||||||||||||
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Date | 2023-04 | ||||||||||||
Language | English | ||||||||||||
Author(s) | von Schuckmann Karina1, Miniere Audrey1, Gues Flora1, 2, Cuesta-Valero Francisco Jose3, 4, Kirchengast Gottfried5, 6, Adusumilli Susheel7, Straneo Fiammetta7, Ablain Michael8, Allan Richard P.9, 10, Barker Paul M.11, Beltrami Hugo12, 13, Blazquez Alejandro14, Boyer Tim15, Cheng Lijing16, 17, Church John19, Desbruyeres Damien![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Affiliation(s) | 1 : Mercator Ocean Int, Toulouse, France. 2 : CELAD, Toulouse, France. 3 : Helmholtz Ctr Environm Res, Dept Remote Sensing, Leipzig, Germany. 4 : Univ Leipzig, Remote Sensing Ctr Earth Syst Res, Leipzig, Germany. 5 : Karl Franzens Univ Graz, Wegener Ctr Climate & Global Change, Graz, Austria. 6 : Karl Franzens Univ Graz, Inst Phys, Graz, Austria. 7 : Univ Calif San Diego, Scripps Inst Oceanog, San Diego, CA USA. 8 : Magellium, Ramonville St Agne, France. 9 : Univ Reading, Dept Neurol, Reading, Berks, England. 10 : Univ Reading, Natl Ctr Earth Observat, Reading, Berks, England. 11 : Univ New South Wales, Sch Math & Stat, Sydney, NSW, Australia. 12 : St Francis Xavier Univ, Climate & Atmospher Sci Inst, Antigonish, NS B2G 2W5, Canada. 13 : St Francis Xavier Univ, Dept Earth Sci, Antigonish, NS B2G 2W5, Canada. 14 : Univ Toulouse, CNES, CNRS, Lab Space Geophys & Oceanog Studies LEGOS,IRD,UPS, Toulouse, France. 15 : NOAA, Natl Ctr Environm Informat, Silver Spring, MD USA. 16 : Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Atmospher Phys, Beijing, Peoples R China. 17 : Chinese Acad Sci, Ctr Ocean Mega Sci, Qingdao 266071, Peoples R China. 18 : Univ Brest, CNRS, IFREMER, IRD,LOPS,IUEM, F-29280 Plouzane, France. 19 : Univ New South Wales, Climate Change Res Ctr, Sydney, NSW, Australia. 20 : Royal Netherlands Inst Sea Res, Den Burg, Texel, Netherlands. 21 : Natl Oceanog Ctr, Southampton, Hants, England. 22 : Univ Colorado, Dept Atmospher & Ocean Sci, Boulder, CO USA. 23 : Univ Vienna, Dept Meteorol & Geophys, Vienna, Austria. 24 : CALTECH, Jet Prop Lab, Pasadena, CA USA. 25 : Alfred Wegener Inst Helmholtz Ctr Polar & Marine, 3Sect Sea Ice Phys, Bremerhaven, Germany. 26 : Japan Agcy Marine Earth Sci & Technol JAMSTEC, RIGC, GOORC, Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan. 27 : NOAA, Pacific Marine Environm Lab, Seattle, WA USA. 28 : Met Off Hadley Ctr, Exeter, Devon, England. 29 : Natl Oceanog Ctr, Marine Phys & Ocean Climate, Southampton, Hants, England. 30 : Nansen Environm & Remote Sensing Ctr, Sea Ice Modelling Grp, Bergen, Norway. 31 : Univ Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Inst Geosci Environm, Grenoble, France. 32 : Carnegie Mellon Univ, Dept Stat & Data Sci, Pittsburgh, PA USA. 33 : Alfred Wegener Inst Helmholtz Ctr Polar & Marine, Permafrost Res Sect, Potsdam, Germany. 34 : Vrije Univ Amsterdam, Dept Earth Sci, Amsterdam, Netherlands. 35 : Norwegian Meteorol Inst, Dept Res & Dev, Oslo, Norway. 36 : ESRIN, European Space Agcy, Via Galileo Galilei 1, I-00044 Frascati, RM, Italy. 37 : Yunnan Univ, Sch Earth Sci, Kunming, Yunnan, Peoples R China. 38 : Univ Bremen, Inst Geog, Bremen, Germany. 39 : Univ Bremen, MARUM Ctr Marine Environm Sci, Bremen, Germany. 40 : European Ctr Medium Range Weather Forecasts, Res Dept, Earth Syst Predictabil Sect, Reading, Berks, England. 41 : St Francis Xavier Univ Antigonish, Climate & Environm Program, Antigonish, NS B2G 2W5, Canada. 42 : CSIRO Oceans & Atmosphere, Ctr Australian Weather & Climate Res, Hobart, Tas, Australia. 43 : Alfred Wegener Inst Helmholtz Ctr Polar & Marine, Permafrost Res Sect, Potsdam, Germany. 44 : Alfred Wegener Inst Helmholtz Ctr Polar & Marine, Paleoclimate Dynam Sect, Bremerhaven, Germany. 45 : Univ Leeds, Ctr Polar Observat & Modelling, Leeds, W Yorkshire, England. 46 : Univ Calif San Diego, Climate Atmospher Sci & Phys Oceanog, Recall Fac, San Diego, CA USA. 47 : JMA, Atmosphere & Ocean Dept, Minato Ku, Tokyo, Japan. 48 : GEOMAR Helmholtz Ctr Ocean Res Kiel, Maritime Meteorol Ocean Circulat & Climate Dynam, Kiel, Germany. 49 : Univ Washington, Appl Phys Lab, Polar Sci Ctr, Seattle, WA USA. 50 : Northumbria Univ, Ctr Polar Observat & Modelling, Dept Geog & Environm Sci, Fac Engn & Environm, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Tyne & Wear, England. 51 : Swiss Fed Inst Technol, Inst Atmospher & Climate Sci, CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland. 52 : Netherlands Assoc, Club Rome, Shertogenbosch, Netherlands. 53 : Univ Edinburgh, Sch Geosci, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland. 54 : Univ Leeds, Sch Earth & Environm, Leeds, W Yorkshire, England. 55 : Tohoku Univ, Grad Sch Sci, Dept Geophys, Phys Oceanog Lab, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan. 56 : Ocean Scope, Brest, France. 57 : Vrije Univ Brussel, Dept Hydrol & Hydraul Engn, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium. 58 : Univ Bern, Wyss Acad Nat, Bern, Switzerland. 59 : Univ Bern, Inst Phys, Climate & Environm Phys, Bern, Switzerland. 60 : Univ Bern, Oeschger Ctr Climate Change Res, Bern, Switzerland. 61 : Yale Univ, Dept Earth & Planetary Sci, New Haven, CT USA. 62 : Woods Hole Oceanog Inst, Phys Oceanog, Woods Hole, MA USA. 63 : Chinese Acad Sci, Cryosphere Res Stn Qinghai Xizang Plateau, State Key Lab Cryospher Sci, Northwest Inst Ecoenviron & Resources NIEER, Lanzhou 730000, Peoples R China. 64 : Univ Zurich, Dept Geog, Zurich, Switzerland. 65 : Univ Brest, CNRS, IFREMER, IRD,LOPS,IUEM, F-29280 Plouzane, France. |
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Source | Earth System Science Data (1866-3508) (Copernicus GmbH), 2023-04 , Vol. 15 , N. 4 , P. 1675-1709 | ||||||||||||
DOI | 10.5194/essd-15-1675-2023 | ||||||||||||
WOS© Times Cited | 5 | ||||||||||||
Abstract | The Earth climate system is out of energy balance and heat has accumulated continuously over the past decades, warming the ocean, the land, the cryosphere and the atmosphere. According to the 6th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, this planetary warming over multiple decades is human-driven and results in unprecedented and committed changes to the Earth system, with adverse impacts for ecosystems and human systems. The Earth heat inventory provides a measure of the Earth energy imbalance, and allows for quantifying how much heat has accumulated in the Earth system, and where the heat is stored. Here we show that 380 ± 62 ZJ of heat has accumulated in the Earth system from 1971 to 2020, at a rate of 0.48 ± 0.1 W m−2, with 89 ± 17 % of this heat stored in the ocean, 6 ± 0.1 % on land, 4 ± 1 % in the cryosphere and 1 ± 0.2 % in the atmosphere. Over the most recent decade (2006–2020), the Earth heat inventory shows increased warming at rate of 0.48 ± 0.3 W m−2/decade, and the Earth climate system is out of energy balance by 0.76 ± 0.2 Wm−2. The Earth heat inventory is the most fundamental global climate indicator that the scientific community and the public can use as the measure of how well the world is doing in the task of bringing anthropogenic climate change under control. We call for an implementation of the Earth heat inventory into the Paris agreement’s global stocktake based on best available science. The Earth heat inventory in this study, updated from von Schuckmann et al, 2020, is underpinned by worldwide multidisciplinary collaboration and demonstrates the critical importance of concerted international efforts for climate change monitoring and community-based recommendations as coordinated by the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS). We also call for urgently needed actions for enabling continuity, archiving, rescuing and calibrating efforts to assure improved and long-term monitoring capacity of the relevant GCOS Essential Climate Variables (ECV) for the Earth heat inventory. |
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